Judge Barton

By Shereen A. Khan and Fayad W. Ali

THE BARTON SERIES
The Barton Series was conceptualized and written with the primary objective of encouraging young students to appreciate how mathematics is used in the real world. The series explore mathematics through the creation of a model child, Barton, whose life experiences are captured through delightful, realistic, and entertaining stories. The stories span just about all the activities in which young children participate in school and with their families during their young, juvenile, carefree, and adventurous years.

The authors believe that a major and poignant barrier to the learning, understanding, and appreciating mathematics is the inability of students to comprehend the language embedded in worded problems. The books, therefore, provide a novel vehicle to connect numeracy and literacy since comprehension, most assuredly, is really the key to decoding the mathematics. And so several visual props have been deliberately added in every story to assist learners who may be challenged in word recognition.

The series also aims at inculcating moral and ethical values as the stories are designed to encourage good behavior and caring ways among young children. While many of the stories build on mathematics content, others focus on the process goals of mathematics such as critical thinking, problem solving, and developing positive dispositions such as respect, perseverance, and team spirit.

Thus, mathematics becomes user-friendly through this methodology that seeks to eliminate anxiety and fear for the discipline. Such negative experiences have prevented thousands of students from learning mathematics throughout their lives. The series appeals to the childs curiosity and desire to have fun as they connect their life experiences to mathematics. The reader will experience meaningful encounters with mathematics and so appreciate its inherent beauty and efficacy in solving real life problems.

These colorful and beautifully illustrated books will strongly complement not just the mathematics but language arts and several other curriculum areas that are incorporated at the primary level in any education system.

JUDGE BARTON
In the stories of Judge Barton, the reader is enchantingly teased into reading, learning, and comprehending the properties of several geometrical shapes. Barton, in his reverie encounter with these three-dimensional figures, was persuaded to act as the judge, as they competed for the prestigious title of the Worlds Best Shape.

The shapes, displaying a plethora of human characteristics and emotions, present their case under the strict rules, guidance, and supervision imposed by Judge Barton. Their stories entertain, enrapture, and captivate the reader as each shape perseveres to reveal their individual characteristics and boast the uniqueness of their properties. The detailed descriptions of their roles and functions are charmingly blended with sound mathematical knowledge, literary sparkle, unconcealed human emotions, and the occasional dash of humor. The shapes presentations, in the keenly contested competition, were individually designed to impress the unbiased Judge Barton into awarding the title to the best shape.

The stories take unusual twists and turns as the osmotic infiltration of human empathy, awareness, and reality slowly creeps in. The plot thickens as momentum gathers and attracts much more than the competitors. The lessons learnt and taught, especially in the unprecedented final outcome, are most assuredly heart-warming with the numerous skills and values that were added.

The reader, regardless of age, is sure to ask for more as they find delight in the mathematics of the book, not only because it is useful, but they will delight in it because it has been alloyed in beautiful literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491850015

Shereen A. Khan

Fayad W. Ali and Shereen A. Khan are the co-authors of this book

Book preview

© 2014 Fayad W. Ali and Shereen A. Khan. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/05/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-5001-5 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Contents

The day of judgement

The beauty with the fine figure

Another beauty shows

My early years

I am what I am

All around

A time for reflection

About the Authors

DEDICATION

The authors wish to dedicate this book to:

Dr. Stephen Surujbally

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors and publishers wish to express their deepest gratitude to Miss Lisa Teelucksingh, the illustrator of this project.

***

‘Judge Barton’ was edited by Mrs. Nisa Surujbally and Mrs. Elizabeth Miller.

JUDGE BARTON

The set of JUDGE BARTON stories is an attempt to reach all children, through the creation of a character, who best epitomises the enacted school curriculum. Barton is a curious, well-mannered individual and represents an ideal child who is moulded by the all the intended learning experiences of school. The entire curriculum is supposed to transform individuals into a character, just like Barton.

JUDGE BARTON, targets the child at the upper level of the primary school. At this level, the child would have mastered most or all the mathematics content expected for the primary level and the problems emphasise the process goals of mathematics, rather than a wide range of content. This set of stories focuses around building model personality characteristics and close relationships with family, friends and the society.

The stories use an approach to learning that not only integrates all areas of the curriculum, but merges two essential areas, mathematics and language arts. The emphasis on building literacy skills is deliberate, since comprehension is a key area needed for developing an understanding in mathematics.

Too often, mathematics has been presented as a set of rules and procedures, to be applied in situations that have no bearings to reality. In these stories, the problems are practical and useful and can serve to whet the child’s appetite to learn the subject, outside the constraints of rules and formulae. The stories appeal to the child’s intuitive and imaginative tendencies and encourage the use of the strategic and critical thinking, in a context that is meaningful and relevant. These reasoning processes are developed through reading for a purpose - to solve a problem.

It is hoped that through these stories, students will learn not just to be creative and critical problem solvers but to acquire good habits and become caring and productive citizens. The stories are laden with sound moral, social and ethical values and teachers may take the opportunity to encourage discussion on the consequences of certain actions, or what other alternatives are possible. They may also use the stories as stimulus material that can be further reinforced in other areas of the curriculum.

For the more mature student, small group work is recommended whereby discussion is limited to a few students and this can be followed by sharing of ideas from each group, in whole class settings.

Fayad W. Ali and Shereen A. Khan

GUIDE FOR TEACHERS

The book ‘Judge Barton’ was written with the intention of enriching the primary school curriculum.